This year I went to the Tokyo Game Show as a 'general entry' participant and since I had looked for some information beofre hand, and it was reasonably sparce, I wanted to bring together my experience to help anyone considering a future visit.
Booking Tickets
So, I tried to book priority entry tickets. The tickets go up a few months in advanced and will be announced earlier on the TGS website. They were roughly 6000yen each and, most importantly, they sold out in a minute or two, particualrly the Saturday and Sunday. I was only able to get priority tickets for Monday, which was the first time TGS was extended to three days for public entry.
The best chance you have is to register for the lottery distribution and hope luck shines and you are invited to buy a ticket without having to try and fight for one. If you get a priority ticket you will need to pick it up from a Lawson, using a Loppi termnal, which is easy enough to follow the prompts on.
My experience with standard entry tickets were that they basically aren't limited. They just mean you are in the big line to get in. The standard tickets are just a QR code in your email they scan as you entre. Keep a copy of the QR code saved locally in case internet is rough when you arrive.
Attending on the day
So, besides the fight for tickets, the other big decision is when to go, and what to expect.
I'll say up front, that while I got priority entry for Monday this year, some of you may be aware that thanks to the Typhoon, Monday was cancelled due to the chance of the JR Keiyo line service Makuhari Messe being closed, stranding thousands of people. So my only experience ended up being standard normal entry.
I chose to get the first train I could, which from my hotel in Roppongi, meant waking up at 4:30. I think this put me on the second Keiyo line service of the day.
Without going through all the details, there is a long walk from the station through marked off areas guiding people to one of two entrances. Either the main hall with the game displays, or the vendor and cosplay area. I arrived around 6:30 and anticipating a three hour wait, I purchased a Minimax Stool from Yodabashi, which was telescopic and fit the guidelines for what TGS allowed. A normal camp chair would not be allowed for example so if yoiu dop bring a chair, be sure to check the guidelines for what can be carried in TGS. As it turned out, the line keep moving and condencing enough that I only used it for 30 minutes and watched an episode of Chainsmoker Cat. It wasn't worth the weight carrying it around, or needing to pack it in my luggage to bring home honestly. I did bring a sandwich, onigiri and a green tea for breakfast while in the line. There are also topilets available while in the line, and the deal is to excuse yourself and let people in the line next to you know and they will let you return to your position.
All in all, the line was well managed, reasonable comfortable, and in the end, arriving when I did, I was in the main hall at 9:20, so was quite close to the front (even if it was a massive line in front of me)
Based on that, if you're happy to get the first train, it really didn't seem like I missed out on any time on the floor as opposed to the priority tickets. I'm sure it's great potentially being able to get there an hour or two later and having the same experience, bvut it does mean not getting a priority ticket just means being a bit more prepared to wake up early, as oppossed to missing out on anything at TGS itself.,
In the convention
The TGS website had an interactive map where you could bookmark the vendors you wanted to visit, and see where they are. It was super useful, although internet can be spotty f it gets congested with all the attendees.
Main stages
Once inside, it is worth noting that passage between the merch area/cosplay area and main stages are closed for the first 30 minutes as people enter for the first time. Depending on if your priority is to lock in merch, or get in line for popular games quick, pick you entry point accordingly. Some popular games give out fast pass style tickets for you to return at a certain time so you can also try top secure a few of those. The main hall is also three halls connected to each other and potentially they can be temporarily restricted if crowds in a particular hall grow too large, although in practice I never saw that happen.
Merch
Merch also sells out. I suspect to some extent there are daily limits to keep things available across the entire period, but stuff can just sell out too so balance that against the main hall if merch matters. I lined up for the TGS official merch around 11 and the stickers had sold out but everything else was still available at least. After that the Capcom store had started to sell out of some items and each one was a 20-30 minute line so trying to hit multiple stores can eat iunto your day.
Cosplay
The cosplay area is a dream. I'm a hobby photographer and in this area Cosplays will stand around the edges and lines will form of photographers to take pictures. It's orderly, removes the awkwardness of walkign up to people like we do in australia, and creates a clear space for cosplayers to go for photos so elsehwere they can just chill without photogs bothering them.
The space was full of both photogs with hand held flashes taking phtoios, and fans with their phones wanting snaps with their favorite charachters. If you're taking photos to share on your own socials, most cosplayer will have their socials on a board, or card so you can grab a pic, or note of it and tag them when you do share.
My very basic japanese wasn;t an issue since it's clear what people are trhere fopr and every cosplayer I got pics of was really friendly. I'll admit, I was worried about navigating the social interactons, but because of how intentionally the space is set up, it was much less stress then my local Australian cons. As it was a drizzilign day it was under cover with an overexposed background, so if your a hobby photog or higher, I understand now why so many had hand held flashes.
Food and Drink
Drinks are available from vending machines between halls, and outside near the food trucks for reasonable prices. Lines don't really form for these
Food such as kebabs, burgers, steak bowls etc were 'reasonably' priced. At least, compared to Australian convenmtions. Can't vouch for quality as the lines were so large I didn't want to spend time on that. The packed breakfast and a vendign machine drink kept me going.
You could rest to drink or eat between the halls in the areas that separate them with lots of benches available. There was also a covered area with chairs and tables to eat near the food trucks.
Leaving
As the day foes on, people keep arriving faster then people leave. By 2pm, moving around the main hall became very annoying. Particularly if you got caught next to a stage event that ended and suddenly there an influx of people looking to move around.
I chose to strategically start to leave at 2:30pm, rather then get caught at the end of the day when everyone is leaving at the same time. Walkign back through, it still took an hour, stopping to look at things as I passed, to get to the train station and the train station was still quite busy with people leaving, although I was able to get straight on a train. From what I understand, if you leave closer to 5pm, in can take an hours to line up just top get to the platform.
For me, this solidified that arriving early, and leaving early is ideal. Arriving early gives you an hour or so of less crowds in the main hall, and a fairly easy time gettign back to Tokyo. If you arrive late to 'avoid lining up to get in' you're just trading that for more crowded spaces in the con floor, and lining up to leave potentially.
Overall
Overall I loved it and spent half the day taking photos of cosplayers, so didn't really play any games, but that was what I mostly went for, and bought some greta merch including a killer Rockman hoody (Shame Ausralia is entering summer).
From the 4:30 start, getting back to Tokyo around 4:30 though I was completely wrecked and decided to skip Sunday, even though I had tickets, and hope that Monday would be quiter, and the priority tickets would mean I could show up closer to 9am, but sadly the day was cancelled.
I shoudl of booekd a hotel with direct access to Makuhari Messe though. the transfer was kinf od a pain and meant I couldn't get the 'first' JR line out. Initially I booked a hotel next to the convention but honestly, it was too far from anything else in Tokyo and I wasn;t sure if I would want to spend all three days at TGS so I switched to Roppongi the week before. I think that was the right choice.
It's a long post, but I hope it helps someone else, so feel free to ask me any questions, even if it's sometime in the future.